Jaker, Alessandro: The 'productive' vs. 'thematic' prefix distinction in Tetsǫ́t’ıné: an LFG formalization

In Tetsǫ́t’ıné (ethnologue: CHP), the causative prefix ł has both productive and thematic uses. When ł is used productively, it adds an argument to the PRED it modifies, and also participates in selection and blocking relations with other prefixes. When ł is used thematically—that is, as part of the basic lexical entry of a verb—it appears to be semantically empty, and yet its selection and blocking properties are retained. This paper proposes a unified treatment of both occurrences of ł, using D-mapping theory (Dalrymple 2015). The D-mapping function, by which changes in the f-structure/a-structure mapping are projected from m-structure, is formulated as a violable constraint in OT-LFG. The result is that when ł is compatible with the argument structure of the PRED, as in its productive uses, the output of the D-mapping function is realized, whereas when ł is incompatible with the argument structure of the PRED, as in its thematic uses, ł is bleached of its semantic content.

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April 25, 2022